How To Make a Unicorn Lamp DIY

Checking in again from girlie mcgirl world. Sorry you moms of boys out there! 
Well. I don’t know about you, but the unicorn bug bit us pretty hard after watching Despicable Me. Personally I think Pegasus is way cooler, but the girls are growling

Perfect, because I had adopted a resin deer lamp with the horns broken off. 
The poor buck was turned into a doe, and hankering for horns. You see this kind of thing in garage sales and second hand stores fairly often. The horns aren’t that sturdy on these poor deer. Something about this buck's plight spoke to me, and yes, I paid green money for him. I don’t know if this is what he had in mind, but he looks pretty happy now! 

Now you may say that a deer makes an ugly unicorn, and I might feel embarrassed about that except a) he's no uglier than the one above while being equally fluffy, and b) to a 3 year old he's enchanting.

Apart from the lamp itself, most things in the supply list are probably ones you have floating around if you do many crafts. If not, come borrow some from me!

Materials

• metal file
• spray primer for plastic
• spray paint 
• wood barbecue skewer
• white paint
• a few dabs of glitter glue
• wire nippers
• multicolored embroidery floss
• metallic embroidery floss
• a card
• scissors
• small crochet hook
• little hair tie
• glitter glue
• hot glue gun
• glue stick
• super glue

Directions 

1. The first steps in the deericorn's transformation were filing off his horn stubs with a metal file and giving him a coat of primer and several coats of paint. You know how to do that, so I don’t have to tell you. I will say that we tried pink first, and we all agreed it was not his shade. We had pushed him too far. We settled on Valspar 85083 Satin Everglade Glen spray paint instead. As an aside, I like working in a copy paper box lid on messy projects like this. It's a tray you can take it outdoors, indoors, cover it with paint and glue, explode glitter everywhere, and not get any mess in the house.  

2. Next dip a few inches of the sharp end of a bamboo barbecue skewer in white latex paint and let it dry. This softens the point and thickens the horn up a bit.  Bonus for not putting your supplies away right when you are done with them: the Valspar can holds the skewer nicely while it dries.

3. For the mane and tail cut up a card from your junk mail into an appropriate length fringe for each. I did 3 3/4” for the tail, and 2 1/2” for the mane but your deer might be a different size. Wind the flosses around the cards. Cut the wrapped floss on one side of the card so you have lots and lots of pieces of floss. 

4. For the tail, wrap a little non-slip hair tie around the middle of the tail yarns, or tie it in a knot.

5. Technically you can do the next part without a crochet hook by finger crocheting. Whether you crochet a chain by hand or with a hook, make sure it is the length you want for the mane from forelock to end. Using your crochet hook or the point of a skewer, fringe the mane onto your chain. 

6. Now back to your horn once it is dry: Coat the painted part with a glaze of glitter glue for some sparkle. I tried actual glitter as well and decided it was a bit over the top for me, but it’s up to you. 

Thacia is showing you glitter glue.
It’s the love of her preschooler heart. Besides spinny skirts, that is. 
I sincerely hope the glue was dry by before she was helping here, but I can't be sure. I was in the zone.

7. Once the glitter glue dries, cut off the amount of horn you will need with the wire nippers/cutters.

8. Drop a nice big dab of hot glue on the place you want your horn to go, and stick the horn in. Hold it at the angle you want while the glue cools. Make another generous dab of glue on the deer’s rump for the tail and holding the tail vertical, press the hair tie or knot into the glue. Quickly arrange the tail the way you want it and press it in while the glue is still pliable. 

9. Impale the forelock of the mane on the horn, and glue that down with hot glue as well. Now your unicorn has a really bad hair day. Wet the strands down and arrange them more artfully. Trim the hair up with scissors. I went for a bit of a natural tapered look if the term “natural” can be applied here. If you untwisted all of the strands it would look even better, but this momma has other projects to get to!

10. Finally, use super glue to permanently glue the hot glue dots to the deericorn. The hot glue holds the accessories in place, but you need the super glue to get them to stay on the lamp.

11. Give him a kiss on the nose and tell him how handsome he is.